12 Days of Christmas: Cookie swap

I think it’s about time I took a lesson in baking in low altitude, high humidity environments, or at least invest a few minutes of my time doing some Internet research in the area. I’ve tried to make cookies at least three times now that were supposed to “crackle” like the magazine picture on the left and it didn't work. I even used the shortening the recipes called for and didn’t replace it with butter (I read that this was really the only way to get a good “crackle” a few years back). Still, although these tasted fine, they clearly didn’t get the look I was going for (see my cookies on the right).
Robbie’s Cub Scout group held a small Christmas party for the boys and we were asked to bring cookies for a cookie swap. That sounded like fun to me, so when I saw this chocolate cookie recipe in a magazine I thought they looked festive and swap-worthy. I baked a batch yesterday morning but was disappointed. I vowed to do a few of things differently next time – one thing being dusting the cookies after they were baked and cooled. These cookies were rolled in powdered sugar before baking and it yellowed the sugar coating. Fail.

12 Days of Christmas: Snow globe ornaments

Early last month I braved Macy's holiday department with the boys. I say braved because it stresses me out; they like to pull and tug on the displays and it drives me nuts and makes me nervous. Pre-coaching about store etiquette and then in-store scolding does little good as they get so excited for the lights and all, so I try to make it a quick tour and exit. I was looking for snow globe tree ornaments and I struck gold!
In the 90s I started collecting holiday snow globes – the big, mantel showcase size. Sometime shortly after our move to Maryland I realized that although I still loved them, having a collection of fragile, bulky, and heavy items just wasn’t practical. I switched then to snow globe ornaments. Family had gifted me some over the years knowing I was collecting all snow globe sizes. I quickly realized how much easier they were to unpack, display, and pack up again. So a new collection was born.
Back to Macy’s last month – I went purposely to see if they had any snow globe ornaments. Hallmark has had a few nice ones over the years as part of their Keepsake collections, but this year I struck out with them. At Macy’s I found three! And better yet, they were already 40% off. (In November? I don’t get retail sometimes.) I noticed one had an on/off switch on the bottom, which I assumed was a switch for a music player. Just last week I pulled them out and went to take a picture. I turned the switch and to my surprise and absolute delight it lit up. And not in a simple, classy way, but a tacky, crap-tacular fiber optic rotating light display way. Merry Christmas to me!

12 Days of Christmas: Advent calendar

I'm back! I thought about starting my Christmas posts in October (if the stores can roll out the red and green, why can't I?). I was just kidding myself, it wasn't going to happen. But inspiration struck this week in the form of a gift from my sister: advent calendars for the boys. Arrived in the mail yesterday just in time to open door one. Beautiful!

Happy Thanksgiving

New find

How excited I am? This past weekend a Westside mushroom grower (I know, who knew?) was at my local farmers market. It was perfect timing as I was planning my holiday side dishes and needed some. The vendor was almost out and I took everything she had left. Only enough for one dish. Would it be the green beans or the stuffing? Well, I think they're too good to be paired with mushy bread as much as I like my version of mushy bread, so they will be with the green beans. The mushroom growers show up at the market depending on whether or not they have product to sell. Let's hope that is more often than not.

Happy Halloween

I'm heading to the Apple store later this evening. A new iPhone is reserved for me! So I decided to do a quick dump of pictures from the last month or so before I migrate to my new device. Here's a palm-sized pumpkin from the Farmers Market. No pumpkin patch for us this year. Luckily, a couple of these little ones filled in just fine.

Someone had a birthday...

Cub turned 4 at the beginning of the month. Robbie wanted Cal to wear a party hat but being a dog and all, he refused. Robbie improvised and snapped this picture. Cal ruptured the ACL in his other knee and had surgery this week to repair it (same surgery he had in May for the first busted knee). Broke my heart to take him to the vet clinic the night before and leave him in their kennel for the procedure the next morning. I don't think there was any doubt he knew what was going on and he wouldn't be home for a few days.
It was a bit rough the first 12 hours home, but it is now nearly 48 hours home and he's doing fine. I want to give him a new nickname but I don't know what to call him...RoboDog? What do you call a mid-size Beagle with two surgically repaired knees?

This one makes me a little sad

Here's a drawing from late last month. Robbie drew our new normal - without Brady. We lost her on September 1, about a week later than the vets thought we would. We're sad but adjusting. I do love the detail Robbie put into Cal. He drew the classic Beagle tri-colors plus added a little grey that Cal now has. :)

Late afternoon at the beach

Another side of paradise

Enjoying a relaxed Friday evening with the boys riding their bikes in the driveway. After work today I picked them up from their respective after school programs and headed straight home. Unlike traffic earlier this week (as shown in the satellite picture - that red line is my bumper-to-bumper commute) traffic wasn't so bad today for a Friday. And for that I thank ESPN for the national broadcast of the UH Warrior football game this afternoon. With a 3 o'clock local start time, many folks started their pau hana activities a little earlier than usual. I know my office emptied out! Looking forward to a few more televised games this year.

Parking lot with a view

Here's the view from my parking spot as I pulled into work one morning this week. I got a good look at it as I drove the last mile or so, too. A full, arching rainbow over the area. Now that made me smile. It was fading by the time I was able to shoot this, and my camera couldn't capture the entire length.
Happy to report busy here...and happily employed. :)